Strategic Housing Project Officer (PO4)
Housing affects the lives of all of our residents within Waltham Forest, and our Housing Department is at the heart of delivering on our Borough’s housing ambitions to deliver substantial housing growth alongside a housing service that enables and supports residents to achieve their full potential. We are looking for an individual who is keen to help us deliver change and service improvement to drive high quality outcomes for our residents, and to keep us at the forefront of best practice.
As a Strategic Housing Project Manager you will be a key agent in ensuring change happens. Part of our Housing Strategy and Development division, you will lead key projects and work alongside colleagues in Housing Assets, Housing Solutions and Housing Management to help design and deliver new ways of working – using a structured approach and ensure that we deliver lasting, impactful change within the housing service. You will also make sure that senior managers have the right information to base strategic decisions on that will affect the direction of the whole housing department.
We’re looking for an individual who is driven to improve public services and has significant practical experience of delivering successful, high-profile projects that have made a demonstrable difference. You should have strong analytical skills, an ability to generate energy and excitement about change, the ability to work to tight deadlines and a strong drive for personal and professional development. But above all, it’s your excellent interpersonal skills that will help you stand out – we’re looking for someone with the ability to challenge how we work as a department in sensitive and constructive ways, and experience of successfully influencing senior stakeholders within a complex organisation. Working within the context of a housing service is desirable, but not essential.
The London Borough of Waltham Forest is fiercely ambitious. We want to make sure each and every one of our residents enjoys a quality life in London.
Join our plans for growth and cultural legacy
We have a hugely ambitious growth agenda and pride ourselves on being forward thinking and an organisation that sets high expectations. We are working with partners to secure investment in making our borough a better place, are progressing with plans to build 12,000 new homes by 2020, and will be leveraging the unique opportunity by being London’s first Borough of Culture as a key plinth of our growth strategy going forward.
Be part of the vision
Our aim is that every single Waltham Forest resident enjoys a good quality life. We have a no-nonsense approach to getting things done and are embarking on a new phase in our transformation where five key principles – Our Unique strengths, Return on Investment, People Focussed, New relationships and New ways of working – will underpin everything we do for our residents. These principles are embedded in our emerging housing strategy, and we will need to embrace new ways of working to ensure that we are able to deliver.
About the Housing Department
The Housing Department has a very broad remit, which includes:
- The management and maintenance of over 10,200 Council homes, hostels and sheltered schemes, managing over 2,000 leasehold properties and maintaining communal areas.
- Collecting around £60m in rental charges for tenants and around £1.4m in charges for services to leaseholders
- Delivering the Council’s homelessness service and allocations service
- Delivering the Council house building programme of 500 new Council homes by 2020
- Working with Registered Providers and Planning to maximise the number of new affordable homes in the borough
- Developing innovative solutions to increase affordable housing options for residents in the borough
- Delivering fuel poverty solutions for residents across the borough
- Working with Adult Social Care teams to increase and improve housing options and services for older people and other groups with special housing needs in the borough
- Working with Housing Services to improve the management and condition of private rented sector properties in the borough
- Working with Planning to ensure that wheelchair adaptable and accessible homes that are being developed are to a high quality and meet the required standard
- Developing housing strategies and policies to deliver all of the above
- Resident Engagement and Scrutiny
- Providing Income Maximisation Services
If you would like an informal discussion about the opportunity, please contact our Head of Housing Improvement, John Coker: john.coker@walthamforest.gov.uk
Closing date: 04 February 2019 at 11.30pm
Equal Opportunities
Waltham Forest is a diverse borough where diversity is valued and is integral to both, service delivery and employment of its staff. The Council is proud of its rich mix of communities and as the largest employer in the area, it works hard to respond to the changing needs of its population. We use our statutory duties on race, gender and disability equality and best practice in respect of age, faith and sexual orientation to ensure equality of opportunity in the workplace. The Council is committed to meeting its 4 equality objectives: - Promoting equality of opportunity - Opposing all forms of discrimination, intolerance and disadvantage - Ensuring our workforce reflects the diverse communities of Waltham Forest at all levels. - Providing fair, appropriate, accessible and excellent Services to all. Respecting Diversity is a core Council value. To support the above and reduce the risk of bias in its recruitment activities, the council is operating an anonymous shortlisting process, which hides personal information that can identify individuals until their application has been considered for shortlisting. The council also operates a scheme whereby, for jobs graded up to and including scale SO2, internal candidates are considered first. This includes those candidates who self-identify as having a disability for the purposes of the Disability Confident scheme. For more information, please refer to our recruitment and selection policy
How to apply
Application Information The councils preference is for on-line application forms. However if you have a disability and are unable to complete an on-line application, please ring 0208 496 4227 who will be able to arrange an alternative. For more information on how to complete your application form, follow this link: Applying for a job at Waltham Forest Council
